Seeing Tate standing at the ice chest that Greer had borrowed from the convenience store, he wiggled his empty can that he wanted another beer.
Tate excused himself from Drake, bringing him the beer.
“Too full to get it yourself?” he asked, setting it down.
“Nope, just wanted to see if you would bring it to me.” He gave his brother a questioning look. “A little crabby tonight, ain’t you? Don’t tell me you’re not still drinking because Sutton can’t.”
“It’s called being sensitive.”
“I call it stupid.”
“I’ll remember that when you get married and have another kid.”
Dustin’s appetite vanished at Tate’s comment. Shoving his plate away, he popped the top off his beer and took a large swallow.
When he lowered the can, he saw Tate had sat down on the other side of the picnic table.
“Greer told me that you told Jessie you didn’t want to get married. You want to tell me why you told her that? Out of all of us, you were the one who wanted a big family. What changed your mind?”
“Do you know how much it costs to raise a child nowadays? I can barely afford Logan; another one would put me in the poorhouse.”
“Bullshit, you couldn’t care less about money. You never take your share of the money we make selling weed. The only reason we grew this last batch is because you wanted to. You wouldn’t stop pestering until we gave in. What’s up? What aren’t you telling us?”
He dismally took another drink of his beer before saying, “I need a favor of you, Tate. I’m going to do it, whatever you say, but I need a favor from you before I do.”
“Depends on the favor.”
“Promise me first.”
Tate’s eyes bore into his. “I promise.”
Dustin gave a sigh of relief before finishing his beer, setting the can down on the table. “I’m going to kill the man who kidnapped Jessie.”
“Do you know who it is?”
“I do.”
Dustin could see Tate’s conflicting emotions written across his face.
“Let Holt have him.”
“I can’t do that. If you had been given the chance to kill Sutton’s ex, would you have done it?”
Tate didn’t answer. They both knew the answer.
“Tell me when you plan to do it. We can do it so that you won’t get caught.”
“I’m not going to tell you or Greer either. I’ll be damned if either of you are going to spend the rest of your lives behind bars instead of raising your children.”
“What about Logan? You can’t raise him if you’re behind bars.”
“That’s the favor I want from you. I can’t take him away from Holly. She’s his mother in every way except biological. What I need from you is to make sure Greer doesn’t make him a big jackass like him.”
Dustin was relieved that Tate didn’t laugh. He was serious.
Logan already idolized his uncle. With Greer in full control, Logan would become his little mini-me. A little of Greer went a long way. The world didn’t need two of them.
“When you going to do it?”
“Not until I’m sure I can get away with it. I’d rather raise Logan myself, but if I can’t, I want my bases covered.”
“Let me and Greer then—”
“Not this time, Tate. Sometimes, there are certain things a man has to do for himself, and this is one of them.”
“You love her that much?”
“Yes.”
“At least answer one question. Will I hear the death bells before you kill him?”
Dustin cocked an eyebrow at him. “Why? So you’ll know when to start watching my every move?”
“What do you think?”
“I think you’ll try to stop it. Tate, we both know you can’t stop the inevitable from happening. I’ll tell you what. I’ll wait until you hear the death bells, and when you do, if I need yours and Greer’s help, I’ll ask for it, okay?”
“If that’s as good as I’m going to get, then yes, I guess that’s going to have to do.”
Dustin didn’t believe for a fucking second that Tate wouldn’t tell Greer. Then both his brothers would watch him like a hawk.
Tate stood up. “You want another beer?”
“No, two’s my limit.”
“I know. I thought you would want it for your eye. That’s a hell of a shiner.”
“Asher got lucky.”
“You’re the one who got lucky. They wanted to beat you to death.” He raised an eyebrow. “Jessie still coming? She didn’t say anything before she left.”
“She’s a little perturbed at how I acted.”
“She actually say that?” Tate laughed.
“That was one of the nicer things she texted me.”
“What’d you say back to her?”
“That she was going to be really fucking perturbed if I saw her staring at Rider that way again.”
“That isn’t jealousy I hear in your voice, is it, little brother?”
“Me? Jealous of Rider? Be for real.” Hunching his shoulders as if he couldn’t care less, he crushed the beer can and threw it into the plastic trash can that was leaning against a tree.